The Challenge
by Leisey
Summary: Nino had asked for Chat Noir and Ladybug to be the celebrities to appear on The Challenge. There was no way they were going to let him down.


_*singsongs* My brain's got no chill, this is my second fic in like two days._

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 **The Challenge**

* * *

 _"_ _Don't even need to think! I'm gonna choose two buds who'll never let me down, that's for sure! Ladybug and Chat Noir!"_

When Nino made his announcement on the set, Adrien's first reaction was shock. Followed by excitement, because it meant that he could help his best friend win and it meant he'd see his Lady. Followed soon by _holy crap, how am I supposed to do that?!_

He was there to support Nino. How was he supposed to slip away in order to transform? The Gorilla was _right there_. How could he get away from him? Plus, he was there to _support Nino_. He, as Adrien, couldn't disappear, despite the fact he was going to be there to support his best friend as Chat Noir.

Argh, secret identities could be difficult.

It was time to use an age-old excuse that hadn't let him down yet.

"I need to use the bathroom," he announced, before darting off.

He dashed away and made it into the building's stairwell. Much like when he'd transformed during the _Jackady_ incident, no one was around. It was the perfect place to transform.

Except for one thing –

"Do we _have_ to?" Plagg groaned. "I don't want to transform. I'm hungry."

"Come on, Plagg. You heard Nino, he wants Chat Noir there. We can't let him down!"

" _Fine_ , but there better be camembert waiting for me after this."

"You can have all the camembert you want."

(Adrien would regret promising the kwami that later. Plagg really could eat a ridiculous amount of cheese.)

" _Tranformez_ _moi_!"

Within seconds, he stood there as Chat Noir. While he'd been nervous about seeming to ditch Nino during his big DJ-ing moment, he was excited about going out there as Chat Noir. Dancing with his Lady while Nino provided the music and spending time with his two best friends? This was going to be fun!

Chat walked back into where the show was being filmed. "I heard someone was asking for me?"

It was worth it. It was totally worth it to see Nino's face light up when he walked in. "Dude!" His best friend exclaimed. "You came!"

Chat walked over to him and gave Nino a fist bump. "Of course," he replied. "It's like you said: Ladybug and I wouldn't let you down."

Alec Cataldi, the host, seemed both surprised and impressed, "You got here incredibly quickly."

Chat froze and mentally cursed. Nino asked for him and Ladybug mere minutes before. Him arriving so soon would seem suspicious. _Gah, why didn't I think of that?!_ He thought.

The sardonic side of him (which always seemed to sound like Plagg) thought _: Because you were too excited about dancing with Ladybug and Nino._

Chat awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "Well, I was close by and I couldn't let my man Nino down." He turned the attention away from him and back on his best friend. "I mean, have you heard his music? It's awesome!"

Nino absolutely beamed at hearing the superhero praise him, "Thanks, dude!"

Alec pulled him onto the stage and in front of the camera. "Look here, everyone! Chat Noir has already answered Nino's challenge! What do you think, Chat Noir? Do you think you'll be able to withstand dancing to Nino's beats?"

 _I'll be dancing within the first second,_ Chat thought. "Oh, I don't know," he said instead, playing up for the cameras and giving them a big grin. "Nino's music is pretty amazing. I think it'll be pretty hard not to dance."

"You can beat akumas, but you don't think you can handle Nino's sick beats?" Alec asked.

"Yeah, man! You've heard his music. You know how good he is. He even got Mayor Bourgeois to dance!"

Nino looked completely over the moon, "Seriously, dude, thank you!"

Chat smiled at him, "No worries. There was no way I was going to let you down!"

"Of course we weren't," a new voice agreed.

They all turned to see Ladybug standing in the doorway of the studio, her arms crossed and a wide smile on her face.

Chat automatically beamed at the sight of his Lady. He barely listened as Alec announced to the live cameras that Ladybug had arrived, too excited about the prospect of what was about to happen to fully pay attention.

"Ladybug!" Nino cried, absolutely delighted that both heroes of Paris had come when he asked.

(Chat couldn't help but think that somewhere else in the city, Alya was having a field day about the current situation).

"Hello, my Lady!" Chat greeted as his partner approached them.

She seemed just as ecstatic to be there as he did, "Hello, _Chaton_!"

Alec ushered them onto the stage, "Alright, everyone! Ladybug and Chat Noir have come to answer Nino's challenge. Let's see how they fare against Nino's awesome DJ skills."

Chat watched as his best friend began playing music. The two superheroes shared a conspiratorial grin and both automatically began dancing. There was a pause and then, "OOOOH!" Alec cried exuberantly, rushing to embrace Nino behind the turntable, yanking the DJ's hand up into the air. "Nino has made our two superheroes dance within seconds! He wins the challenge!"

Chat momentarily stopped his (flawless, if you asked him) execution of the Gangnam Style dance. "Of course he did. His tunes are awesome. I said it'd be hard not to dance, didn't I?"

"He's the best!" Ladybug agreed, nodding. "How could we _not_ dance?"

Nino looked stunned at such praise from the heroes of Paris, "Thank you!"

"Well, there's still some time left before the end of the episode," Alec said. "Could we perhaps persuade our heroes to dance a bit more?"

Once again, Chat and Ladybug share a look; simultaneously, they smirked.

"Hit it, DJ!" Ladybug said.

Nino didn't need telling twice and began playing more music, a smile tugging at his mouth. "Alya's gonna love this," Chat heard him murmur.

Upbeat music played and the two heroes began dancing in the worst, stupidest way they could. Ladybug busted out in the robot, Chat Noir did the worm. Ladybug moonwalked, Chat did the monkey. Ladybug did the Nutbush, Chat Noir did the Macarena. They simultaneously did the YMCA.

"Looking good, _Chaton_!" His partner laughed.

He winked at her as he did a routine similar to the one he did when they were battling Rogercop, "And you look amazing as always, _Buginette_!"

Chat paused to take in the beat of the music. With a cheerful, "Watch this!" he began to toprock, moving his feet in kick side steps and busting out in hip twist moves. Everyone paused to watch him and when he was satisfied he'd garnered everyone's attention, he grinned and dropped into a six step breakdancing sequence. Supporting himself on his arms, he spun his legs on a circle, grinning widely as he did.

He caught a brief glimpse of his Lady's expression of surprise. Encouraged by it, his dance moves became even more elaborate, before he jumped back up to a standing position and finished by posing with his arms crossed and a victorious smirk on his face.

Ladybug looked impressed and Chat tried to not let it go to his head.

(He failed).

"Since when can you breakdance?" She asked.

He shrugged, "Since I have a large bedroom, lots of space and a lot of time to myself."

She held her fist out for a fist bump, "I think you just won that dance battle, _Chaton_. _Bien joué!_ "

Without hesitation, he bumped her fist, "Thank you." He then bowed dramatically at her and held his hand out with a flourish. "But may I have this dance, my Lady?"

She looked momentarily surprised, but took his hand nevertheless. They stood in the traditional waltz position but before they could move, Ladybug said, "This isn't really the right music for-"

She cut herself as the music changed to one more befitting a slower dance.

(It was official: Nino was the best DJ and friend ever).

"I'm not too good at this," Ladybug said. "Just warning you in case I step on your feet."

"Don't worry, my Lady," Chat replied. "I'm a cultured cat. Just follow my lead."

He led her around the studio's stage in a traditional waltz. Despite her earlier warning, his partner didn't tread on his feet. Not that Chat thought he really would have noticed if she did. He was over the moon with what was happening. He was _dancing with his Lady!_ He felt giddy and his cheeks hurt from grinning so much.

Chat was also pleased to see that Ladybug wore a wide smile as they danced around the room. "So, breakdancing _and_ a waltz?" She said. "Clearly someone's a jack of all trades."

"A _cat_ of all trades?"

She made an adorable sound that was a cross between a scoff and a snort of amusement. "A cat of all trades, master of none."

"Me-ouch, _Buginette_! How could you say that? Did you not see my dance moves? They're su- _purr_ -b. Clearly, I am the cat's meow."

"I'll admit it; you were pretty impressive."

Chat beamed at her, "You're pretty impressive too, my Lady."

She laughed, "Oh yeah, my robot was top notch."

"There's never been better rendition of the robot in the whole history of dance."

"If you say so, _Minou_."

Caught up in the moment as he was, he was startled when Alec called out, "Unfortunately, that's all we've got time for, everyone!" Chat jumped in surprise and lost his footing. Stumbling and falling backwards, Chat mentally prepared himself for a fall that was going to hurt.

Except it didn't happen.

Ladybug had caught him in her arms. Normally, that wouldn't be such a big deal. They were superheroes, they caught each other all the time when battling akumas. But this time? This time, the way Chat had fallen and the way she'd caught him made it seem liked she'd dipped him.

They were just slow dancing around the studio and now it looked like she freaking _dipped him._

Chat blushed heavily.

He could see the moment Ladybug realised what it looked like to other people. He expected her to seem embarrassed and hurriedly let go of him.

So of course she did the opposite.

Ladybug smirked and leant in closer. Chat's blush increased tenfold and his heart hammered in his chest. His eyes were drawn to her lips. She wasn't – surely she wasn't about to what it looked like she was going to do?

"Bug – um – what – guh?" He eloquently stuttered.

Her smirk increased and she leant in further to murmur in his ear, "Not so much the cat's meow now, are you, _Chaton_?"

 _Holy shit!_

Chat was about to have a heart attack.

She helped him stand and then put the nail in the coffin by pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.

He was dead.

Chat was pretty sure he died.

 _Goodbye world,_ he thought. _Nino, you can have my anime and CD collection. All the cheese hidden in my room goes to Plagg._

"Buggin – what?" Yep, he was still incapable of speech.

His partner laughed at him.

She _laughed_! Chat was about to die and she was just standing there and laughing. Maybe _Le_ _Papillon_ wasn't the villain after all, because Ladybug was clearly pure evil after putting him through that.

"Thanks for the dance, _Chaton_ ," she winked at him.

Pure. Evil.

He may have said 'you're welcome', but he wasn't entirely sure if he managed it. He might have choked something out that sounded like, "wour yelcome," but he was more preoccupied with his heart that was attempting to beat right out of his chest.

Ladybug turned to Nino, "Congratulations on your win! Thanks for challenging us!"

"Thanks for coming, dude! I knew you wouldn't let me down!"

His Lady then turned to camera, "Thanks for watching us dance, Paris! Although I think it's clear that Chat Noir is the better dancer out of the two of us. _Au Revoir_!"

With that, she darted out of the television station, shooting him a quick smile and "Until next time, Chat Noir!" as she went.

He watched her go. Pulling himself together, he turned back to his best friend and Alec. "I guess that's my cue to go as well," he said. "Thanks for the fun and let it be put on record that Ladybug said I was the better dancer." With a grin and a two fingered salute, he ran off to building's stairwell to detransform.

Adrien leant against the wall as he fed his kwami some cheese. "Plagg, oh my god, Ladybug just – she – she didn't kiss me but it _looked_ like it! And she dipped me! I mean, she didn't, it kind of just turned out that way and holy crap. The she leant in just to tease me, but it didn't look like and oh my god she _kissed me on the cheek!_ "

Plagg looked unimpressed, "Jeez, if this is you now, imagine your reaction if she kisses you for real. Well, again."

Caught up in his internal ' _holycrapholycrapholycrap_ ', he missed the last little thing the kwami said. "What was that?"

"Nothing. Shouldn't we be getting back to Nino?"

"You're right, he's probably wondering where I am."

Cheese finished, Plagg hid back in his pocket once more and Adrien ran back to where Nino was waiting with the Gorilla. Adrien was somewhat surprised his bodyguard hadn't come looking for him (he had been gone for a fair while) but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He ran over to his best friend, and Nino lit up at the sight of him. "Bro, where have you been?!"

"What did I miss? I got stuck in the bathroom, the door wouldn't open!"

" _Duuuuuude_! You missed Ladybug and Chat Noir dancing to my tunes! I won! They were great, I knew they wouldn't let me down."

Adrien gave him a fist bump, "Way to go, man! I'm sorry I missed it."

Nino waved away his away his apology as they began walking towards the exit of the studio. "It's alright. It's funny though, you always seem to miss them. You've got the worst luck when they're invol–"

The DJ cut himself off and Adrien looked at him curiously, "Nino?"

A myriad of emotions passed over his best friend's face, far too quickly for Adrien to recognise all of them. Surprise was one of them, he definitely saw surprise, but then it was replaced by Nino's usual, easy-going smile.

"It's nothing, man. I just got lost in thought. Do you want to go play some videogames at my place?"

Adrien blinked at the sudden change in conversation but nodded eagerly, "You're on!"

They'd made it to the exit of the building when Nino leant in with a knowing expression and whispered to him, "Next time, make it a little harder for me to win the challenge, will you? Okay, Chat Noir?"

Caught off guard, Adrien ran into the door.

(Plagg and Nino had a blast laughing together about it later).

* * *

 **A/N:**

 _This is what happens when I go through my story folder and find old works in progress (Seriously, I've got like eight unfinished ML fics started in there). This was an 800 word beginning that morphed into this. From memory, it was inspired by a tumblr post about the Jackady episode, but it's been so long that I can't remember what the actual post said or who wrote it._

 _I even did research for this because I know nothing about dancing. Well, nothing about breakdancing. I'm an awful dancer but I'm a pro at the robot, the monkey, the Macarena, the YMCA and my goodness if you don't know the Nutbush, you're missing out (but the wikipedia page for it only really specifies Australia as where the dance is really popular so maybe us Aussies are just weird?)_

 _Anyway, I hope you liked this fic. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon after days of essay writing. Please let me know what you thought in the reviews!_

 _Much love,_

 _Leisey._


End file.
